Our need to adapt to climate change is more pressing than most appreciate

Fred Guterl.

The need to adapt to climate change is more pressing than most in our community appear to appreciate.

The complications and implications of our changing climate will not, if not addressed in quick and decided fashion will bring upon humanity changes it is ill-equipped to address.

“Extinction” is a word that springs to mind and it is one that Fed Guterl has explored, but for different reasons, in his new book.

Guterl’s writing gives us reason to pause and consider.

Guterl, a senior editor at Newsweek International who directs the magazine’s coverage of science, technology, health, medicine and the environment,

“The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It” written by Guterl and published in May this year is both a thoughtful book and thought provoking.

Guterl considers extinctions and why they happened and early in the book says:

“Sometimes, though, change happens all at once, too quickly for species to adapt. Many biologists believe that is happening now. They believe that humans are changing the planet at a rate too quick for many of the planets’ species to keep up. Eventually, they fear, species will die off suddenly en-masse, triggering a cascade of extinctions, which could have a devastating effect on the planet’s intricate web of life. It’s the Large Blue phenomenon multiplied throughout all the ecosystems on the planet. It’s nature’s way of wiping the slate clean to begin again. It’s happened at least five times since life began on the planet about four billion years ago.

Man's inventions might be
 his eventual undoing.

“Is it happening now? The question is important because if the answer is yes, the likelihood that humans will survive is slim.”

One Amazon.com reviewer said: “There are many books out there discussing this topic, most of them in a very sensationalist and wildly exaggerating style. Luckily for me, this isn't the case here as the author sets a matter of fact tone which I was immediately taken with. Written in a conversational style and painting both vivid and plausible scenarios of what could happen, he takes the reader from super viruses past climate change straight to what he obviously sees as the most likely culprit of all - scientific and technological progress. Our own inventions as source and cause of our possible extinction might not sound quite as exciting as a meteor striking, but according to this survey it's scarily likely.

“Regrettably, it's the minutely detailed examples, highlighting present day research, which create an imbalance, sometimes long-winded enough to break up a chapter, and often reducing the fascinating question of what might happen to a mere afterthought. Another thing I found slightly unfortunate were the thoughts on solutions being pooled into the last chapter instead of complementing the individual chapters. A general conclusion would have been more fitting in my opinion”.

The reviewer concluded in saying: “In short: Technology as our downfall - an interesting excursion into what may cause the next mass extinction event on our planet!”

The implications of what Guterl discusses pretty much exceed the understanding and imagination of most, just as do the changes we must address if we are to adapt to climate change and one of the first steps in that adaptation program would be to introduce a Four-Hour Work Day.